Dreading Daylight
by Xeldablade
Summary: After defeating Ganondorf, Zelda, Midna, and Link spend the night in Kakariko before heading to the Mirror of Twilight in the morning. But when Link can't sleep, he decides to take a walk...and is surprised by what he finds. Midlink. Oneshot. Rated T for language/blood.


**I finally got around to writing some Midlink! I've been wanting to for a long time so I'm happy about this :)**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Legend of Zelda or anything related. You know the drill.**

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After laying awake in his bed for over an hour, it became clear to Link that he would not be getting any more sleep tonight. He had already woken up from a nightmare, although he couldn't remember exactly what had happened in it. He eyes snapped open and he jolted up to a sitting position, trying to keep himself from shaking. His pillow had been drenched with sweat, so once he calmed down he took the time to flip it on its dry side and set his head on top.

For the past hour, all he could do was think about the events that transpired just a few hours ago. Ganondorf, as far as he knew, was finally dead. And Midna, which he knew for a fact, was indeed alive. Everything almost seemed dreamlike, too good to be true. They had waited for this day to come for what felt like forever; and yet here Link was, thinking intently about Ganondorf's death, practically still able to feel the strain of the Master Sword's blade being forced into his chest. These thoughts made Link shiver, so he eventually decided to think about something else.

After _that_ had happened, Zelda, Midna, and Link decided to spend the night at the inn of Kakariko Village since it was so close, and head for the Mirror of Twilight in the morning. Link was dreading daylight, knowing that its arrival would force him to say goodbye to Midna. He thought about the fused shadows, circling the imp as they stood in Hyrule Castle together. How he reached out to her desperately because he finally understood what she was about to do—

And the next thing he knew, he was standing in Hyrule Field, watching the building that she was in explode, slowly turning into dust. In that moment, he thought he'd lost her. He'd thought he would never see her again, and she had sacrificed herself for them… for everybody that lived in their realm. The memory made his heart ache like never before. And suddenly he wished he hadn't stopped thinking about violently killing the Gerudo King.

Discomforted by his own thoughts, Link decided to go for a walk, as an attempt to clear his head. He put on his chainmail, tunic, boots, and anything else he was wearing before, being sure he remembered his sword and shield. He opened the door—which only creaked a little—and tiptoed across the wooden floorboards—which creaked a _lot_ —passing other rooms and finally down the large staircase. It seemed that no one had heard him.

He opened the door outside, and was immediately greeted by a warm gust of wind. He always forgot how impossible it was to escape the heat here; as a village that resided beside a volcano, even the "refreshing" spring water was uncomfortably hot. But what else could you expect of a village populated primarily by gorons?

He walked down the porch, expecting to hear the familiar screech of the guays that usually came out at night, but instead he heard nothing but an eerie silence. He looked carefully at the buildings, investigated where they usually appear, but there were none to be found. Was Ganondorf somehow responsible for them, and now that he's dead then so were they? Confused, Link decided to look in the graveyard, which was normally infested with them. He walked quietly past a sleeping Epona, next to the large sanctuary, and under the familiar wooden posts that marked the cemetery he had visited numerous times before.

The graveyard was as dreary and chilling as it always had been. The tombstones rested crookedly, bearing unintelligible words written many, many years ago. Thankfully there were no more poes here, for Link had rid of them as a wolf prior to defeating Zant. As Link walked toward the stone staircase, everything about the place seemed as it was before…

…except for two things.

For one, there were no guays here, either. This didn't particularly concern him, especially since they were missing outside of the inn as well. As a matter of fact, it was favorable this way, since the townspeople wouldn't have to worry about being terrorized on a casual nightly stroll.

But the second oddity made Link suddenly very rigid and disturbed. It seemed that the missing guays had been replaced by something else. On the upper stone platform, facing away from him, stood a tall, dark figure. It wore long drapery that drifted gently in the warm breeze; the only part of it that seemed to move.

Link unsheathed his sword, the metallic sound resonating through the alcove at the base of Death Mountain in which they stood.

"You know, if you want to kill me," said the figure as it began to turn, "you should have done it back in those sewers after I let you out, wolf boy. That probably would've saved the both of us a lot of trouble."

 _…Wolf boy?_ Link thought. _There's only one person in the entire world that has ever called me that…_

"Midna?" Link asked, now staring at the blue-skinned twilight beauty before him. Her long orange hair fell elegantly off both of her shoulders, joined at her chest. Her red eyes glowed like the blue markings on her arms and her exposed right leg. She wore the same black cloak with twilight symbols from earlier. He looked at her purple lips, which seemed to hold a soft smile. He put away his blade and asked, "What are you doing out here?"

"Dying of a heat stroke," she said. As he walked closer to her, he noticed the sweat on her skin, which glistened brilliantly in the moonlight. "Thought if I died in a graveyard, then that would save the trouble of having to carry my body here."

Link couldn't help but smile back. "I don't think the gorons would have minded. They're pretty strong."

She shrugged. "Well then I guess I'm just nice like that. _Damn_ , I really am turning into a light-dweller." She turned to her left and headed for the stairs, sitting on the top one. As Link sat next to her, she asked, "So what are you doing here?"

"I couldn't sleep."

Midna threw her head back with a loud and unconvinced "HA!" Slightly startled, Link looked at her curiously. "Since when do you have trouble sleeping? If it wasn't for me _literally_ pulling you out of bed, you probably would have never left, you know."

 _Since when do I have trouble sleeping? Since I thought you were dead_ , he thought, but chose not to say aloud. Instead he just uttered, "I…I don't know."

Link continued to look at her once she looked up to the sky. The stars reflecting in her red irises made it seem like her eyes held their own clandestine galaxies. Her skin was still shimmering with perspiration as she attempted to breathe deeply amidst the dry air. He wondered how on earth someone could be so beautiful despite these circumstances, for he had never seen anyone like her before.

After a moment of silence, Midna noticed him staring, looked at him and asked, "Why does everyone keep looking at me that way?"

Unaware of what he had been doing, he modestly shifted his gaze to the ground. "They look at you in what way?"

"Like they're either afraid of me or they want to kiss me."

"I'm not afraid of you."

Midna chuckled, and it wasn't until Link looked up and saw her smirk that he realized what his innocent response seemed to insinuate.

He tried to correct himself. "I—I didn't mean…uh—"

"Whatever, wolf boy. Has anyone ever told you you're a bad liar?"

Link just groaned, which Midna found amusing. Laughing a little, she said, "I'm really gonna miss these little talks, Link."

Suddenly, he had an idea. It was crazy, but maybe he could get it to work…. "What if I go to the twilight realm with you?"

Midna's eyes went wide in surprise. " _What?_ "

"Maybe I could help you out! You know, considering everything that's happened, maybe I could give you protection for awhile, and—"

"Wait just a second there, Link." The Twilight Princess stood up, went down the stairs, turned around and crossed her arms. "What makes you think I need protection?"

He stared at her again. "I…I didn't mean—"

"Now I don't know how things work here in this realm. But where _I_ come from, as royalty, I am trained to protect both myself and my people, in addition to governing the land."

Link didn't bring up how well she had "protected" herself against Zant. Then again, he was only able to defeat him with various weapons… and her.

"But I'll tell you what, wolf boy. I say we have a duel. If I win, you have to stay here and help Zelda. But if you win, then you can come with me in the morning to the Twilight Realm."

Link shook his head, bewildered. Was she insane? "What? A duel? Midna, I'm not going to fight you, that doesn't make any sense."

"Why not? It makes perfect sense! Obviously, I need to prove to you that I'm not helpless," she said almost too innocently. Then, to Link's astonishment, Midna simply held out her right hand and a sword materialized out of nowhere, the hilt in her palm. Much like herself, the blade was black with intricate glowing designs, embedded within it the metal. "I thought you said you weren't afraid of me."

"I'm not."

She pointed the sword at him. "Then prove it."

Deciding to amuse her, Link stood slowly and equipped the Master Sword as he walked down the stairs. He didn't plan on really fighting her, and definitely didn't want to make the first move.

But Midna didn't mind one bit and she didn't hesitate. She swung her sword at Link's side, which he blocked with his blade without even thinking. "Is that all you've got?" he joked.

"Not quite," she responded, pulling her sword back and then striking again much lower. Link was able to guard again, but to his slight surprise, only just barely. Midna fought quickly and had very clean and precise movements; something he wasn't generally used to seeing.

Suddenly, Midna spun around. She was so fast that Link almost didn't get to block her sword that nearly struck his other side. She swung from different directions, never able to hit him because he was focusing greatly on blocking the hits.

This went on for several minutes, and it became clear that while Midna used offensive tactics, Link refused to use anything but defense. "Why won't you try and hit me?" Midna asked as sweat formed on her forehead, slightly out of breath.

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Well then how am I supposed to prove to you that I don't require your protection? Anyone can throw around a sword like I've been doing. You must fight back for me to prove my worth."

"You do not need to prove that," he said. He swung the Master Sword—very slowly—toward her side like she had done, which she easily blocked. "I already know your worth is exemplary."

She rolled her eyes at his comment, and also his lame attempt to hit her. "You need not worry about me, Link. You may be the _Hero of Light_ , but you are also, unfortunately for you, _very_ predictable," she taunted.

… _Predictable?_ Link stood there, thinking. _I need to catch her off guard. But what if I hurt her?_ Then he remembered that there were fairies by the spring; if something bad happened, then in a worse case scenario she could be healed up in seconds.

Reassured by this thought, Link decided he could fight back, but would start off easy to make sure she knew what she was doing. He stepped forward, causing her to step back, and swung at her ankles. She jumped up quickly and lifted her sword to hit him, just as he rolled to the side to avoid it. He glanced at her face to make sure she was alright, and she was beaming.

"Finally," she muttered, loud enough for him to hear.

She walked towards him, occasionally jabbing at the air in between other strokes, and he jumped back every time she did. Eventually though, a gravestone prevented him from moving backwards any further. But when she utilized the stabbing motion once more, he quickly equipped his shield and blocked the attack.

"You cheated," she said.

"Not really, considering this shield just saved my life."

She backed away, looking at him up and down. "Alright then," she said, holding her left hand out. A second sword appeared there, so she now wielded double blades.

"Now _that's_ cheating," Link mocked.

She smirked. "If you use all of your preferred weapons, then I shall use all of mine."

A much more formidable fighter than Link had originally expected, Midna spun both swords forward in her hands, waiting for him to make his move. He approached her and attempted a downwards strike, only to have her form an 'X' with her swords, catch his blade, and kick him away with her right foot.

Her strength caught him a bit off guard, but he recovered quickly. She swung her swords at him from both directions, his shield barely managing to block both ways.

They kept using various strategies of swordplay toward each other for several minutes, Midna using duel swords cleverly, while Link blocked with the shield and used the powerful swings that the Master Sword provided as offense. They still had managed not to hurt each other; not even a small scratch.

Eventually, Midna found her own back pressed against a gravestone instead of Link's. She used one sword to block the strike of Link's, and another to force him to use the shield for defense. And then, to his utter shock, she somehow managed to reach her foot to the back of the shield and kicked it out of his grasp, landing more than a few feet beside the duo. Midna tried to hit him with both blades, causing him to jump backward. But he didn't try to retrieve the shield; instead, the pair looked at each other. Wordlessly, Midna decided to toss her left sword to the side, landing on top of the Hylian Shield.

Midna gave him a look that seemed to say 'Let's keep going', and Link stepped forward once again. The two of them fought using only one weapon each, both able to defend themselves as effortlessly as before. But then, when Link tried using a downward strike again, Midna did not raise her sword to stop it. Instead, she held up her left hand, grabbing the blade and forcing it to a halt.

Horrified, Link wondered: _Why in the name of Hylia would she do such a thing?!_ But looking at her face, he could tell she was not in pain. Her hand was not bleeding; as a matter of fact, once he looked more closely, her hand wasn't actually touching the metal at all. Her hand simply surrounded the sword, holding it in place so Link couldn't move it.

Link knew she had powers as an imp (like breaking small chains, or briefly transforming into looking like other people), but he had never seen anything like this. Mesmerized, he watched her lift the sword out of his hand with ease, aim it away from them, and he went wide-eyed as it launched itself to the other side of the graveyard, soaring swiftly though the dry air. She then kneed him in the side, causing him to lose his balance and nearly fall forward. She grabbed him by the shoulder, spun him around, and forced his back against the gravestone that she had been leaning on. She brought the remaining sword adjacent to his neck, preventing him from moving.

He evaluated his options. He was captive, with no weapons, and couldn't do much to get one.

"You won," he said.

"Hardly," she responded, her face only inches from his. "You're letting me win."

"I didn't know you had a power like that," Link said, looking in the direction of the Master Sword. "Why didn't you just use that to begin with?"

"I wanted you to feel like you stood a chance," she teased. "Masculinity is ironically very sensitive. But like I said, you're predictable, and you're letting me win. The fight is only over because you want it to be. You and I both know that you could get a weapon right now if you wanted to."

"Then why don't I?"

"Because it would hurt me."

It was a bit unsettling how much she knew about him; of course, she was right. "Well, if I'm so predictable, then tell me what I would normally do in this situation."

She continued to keep her face close to his, looking deeply into his azure eyes, the only thing in between them being the sword by Link's neck. As she spoke, her voice grew quieter. "First, you would try to kick me to catch me off guard. If I were a male, probably between the legs. But since I'm not, then you would just try to knock me over. Then you'd sprint for your shield and my sword over there since they're the closest weapons around, and we'd keep on fighting.

"However, since I'm smart enough to know that, then I wouldn't let you go through with it. If I really wanted to kill you, I would pretend like you managed to knock me over, aim my blade at you when your back is to me, and pierce it straight through your abdomen. And I would watch as the blood seeped out of you and onto these graves, your life decaying with the others here who died thousands of years before you."

At this point, she spoke only in a whisper. "Are you afraid of me now, wolf boy?"

He looked fixedly at her eyes. "A little bit," he answered honestly.

A soft smile appeared on her face as she whispered, "Good."

The pair then looked at each other, still not having moved and just inches apart. Link looked at her lips; her lilac, plump lips. They complimented her blue skin perfectly, as if no other color combination would have done any justice. She was so close that Link could feel her warm breaths, and the heat radiating off her skin. Despite being covered in sweat himself, and being slightly perplexed by her in general at the moment, he never felt more at home with her.

Before he knew it, his eyes started to close and he began to lean toward her. He moved as far as he could without touching the blade, but as he leaned forward, Midna did just the opposite. When he opened his eyes again, he realized she wasn't even looking at him; she was looking at the sky behind her. She hadn't even seen him trying to kiss her.

"Sunrise…" she observed sadly, watching a blue sky slowly becoming lighter, the stars beginning to fade. Her gaze shifted downwards. "Already?"

Link sighed, unable to hide the sadness on his face. The realization that he may never know how she really felt about him was beginning to dawn on him. He said reluctantly, "Almost time to go."

She looked at Link once more and lowered her weapon. Link went to retrieve the Master Sword, which was up the stairs and next to the small tunnel that led to King Zora's Grave. On the raised platform beside a tree, he noticed something peculiar: the ground seemed to have a dark, black substance…blood?

And then Link understood. _Guays blood_. They hadn't disappeared; the Twilight Princess had executed them before he found her here. Not only that, but she managed to come out completely unscathed, which was something even Link found difficult at times.

When Link returned to Midna's side, the couple began to exit the graveyard walking beside each other. "You know," Link remarked, "I'm starting to think you could have defeated Ganondorf all on your own."

She smiled. "Maybe…but not without The Blade of Evil's Bane. I am not worthy to wield such a weapon." There was a brief pause. "I suppose we've always needed each other."

Link, unknowing what to say, simply grabbed her hand. She welcomed the gesture; it said enough.

There was so many questions he wanted to ask her, but it wasn't the right time. Would he ever get the chance to ask? Would he ever see her again?

He thought about the Mirror. _Of course I'll see her again_ , he thought to himself. _This is not a goodbye, we'll meet again. I'll visit her, and I'll get her to visit back here, too. And we can talk more when the time comes._

These thoughts made him feel better.

 _You'll see her again._

The sun continued to rise.


End file.
